After my Thursday post, I noticed that a majority of my posts seem to involve Facebook in some way. Trust me; this will probably be my last Facebook-centered post in a while. Okay, enough of disclaimers.
In regards to most technology, I feel as though most people have a genuinely good idea and have good intentions for it – even if those intentions also happen to get them a lot of money at the same time. Facebook falls into the same boat. It’s a great tool for bringing people together when they have been separated by a lot of time or distance. For this reason alone, it’s beneficial to use it, especially if you have been out of high school or college for a long time. In fact, I remember when I first got it how exciting it was to “reconnect” (read as: populate my friend list) with people who I forgot about or haven’t talked to in a while. In hindsight, I can now ask the question: “Wasn’t there a reason why I forgot or stopped talking to them?” Most of the people on my friend list I don’t even “cyber-stalk,” let alone have any communication with. In fact, I have found most of who I interact with on Facebook are the same people I interact with without Facebook. If I started using Facebook as a tool to honestly seek out old friends, then I’d be using Facebook properly. To honestly assess myself on this, I’d say that I don’t use Facebook for this purpose, thus I have violated the original intention of the service.
The second aspect Facebook provides, apart from connecting, is sharing. I’ve already wrote about the dangers of how sharing becomes self-worship. Sharing information, such as websites, blogs, pictures, and other similar things can be a great way to develop an online relationship. It also helps you spread your ideas among the masses in a chain-reaction type of way. Personally, I like using it to share whatever is happening on r2r or Facebook addiction awareness. Others use the service to push their personal feelings or beliefs to others. And others yet just use it to create a false cause and get lots of people to half-heartedly join. Apps fall into this category too. I very rarely join groups, and I don’t use any apps. So based on that, I don’t think I abuse the sharing aspect of my Facebook privilege. When I do post, it’s the rare r2r blog that comes out once or twice a month. Most of my friends who know what it is (or don’t care) don’t view it. Those who never seen it or are curious click on it once and never do so again from what I’m guessing. I’ve never experience anyone outside the group that contributes ever mentioning it, so I don’t think we’re by any means viral. In fact, it’s stagnant. So when I do share, it’s not much and it doesn’t get much publicity.
I realize now my slight Facebook addiction was really based on nothing substantial. In fact, I think it’s just something I did out of habit. I don’t think I’m going to delete my Facebook profile in case I want to get in contact with someone on it, but I am going to be continuing working on going on it less and less. There is only a little bit of information and pictures uploaded about me. Over the summer, I’ll reduce that to practically nothing. Am I upset with Facebook’s privacy policies? Yes. But if I provide them (or the rest of the Internet) with nothing, then nothing can used against me. Consider it a lesson learned.
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